random posts

Friday, 6 October 2017

Just a Car Guy graces us with the bracing find of a 1903 model of a De Dion-Bouton vis a vis voiturette (a four-wheeler) charging through the streets of Paris, outfitted with pneumatic tyres, patented by a French inventor named Alfred Ducasble, to ride rough-shod over the cobblestones without sustaining wear and tear. Gifted toymakers turned automotive engineers Georges Bouton and his brother-in-law Charles Trépardoux, under the patronage of automobile pioneer and marquis Jules-Albert de Dion, founded the automobile and railcar company in 1881 and originally made steam- and electric-powered models before turning to the internal combustion engine, and was until the 1920s the largest automotive manufacturer in the world, churning out a volume of two thousand vehicles annually from its factory on the banks of the Seine in Puteaux.